IN THE OLD WEST 99 



turned from trapping on the waters of Grand 

 River, on the western side the mountains, who in- 

 terlards his mountain jargon with Spanish words 

 picked up in Taos and California. In one corner 

 a trapper, lean and gaunt from the starving re- 

 gions of the Yellow Stone, has just recognized 

 an old camp any ero, with whom he hunted years 

 before in the perilous country of the Blackfeet. 



66 Why, John, old hoss, how do you come on? " 



"What! Meek, old 'coon! I thought you 

 were under? " 



One from Arkansa stalks into the center of the 

 room, with a pack of cards in his hand and a 

 handful of dollars in his hat. Squatting cross- 

 legged on a buffalo-robe, he smacks down the 

 money and cries out " Ho, boys ! hyar's a deck, 

 and hyar's the beaver " (rattling the coin) ; " who 

 dar set his hoss ? Wagh ! " 



Tough are the yarns of wondrous hunts and 

 Indian perils, of hairbreadth 'scapes and curious 

 " fixes." Transcendent are the qualities of sun- 

 dry rifles which call these hunters masters; 

 " plum " is the " center " each vaunted barrel 

 shoots ; sufficing for a hundred wigs is the " hair " 

 each hunter has " lifted " from Indians' scalps ; 

 multitudinous the " coups " he has " struck." As 

 they drink so do they brag, first of their guns, 

 their horses, and their squaws, and lastly of them- 

 selves : and when it comes to that, " ware steel." 



La Bonte, on his arrival at St. Louis, found 



